Venture Capital
Diana Propper de Callejon on Integrated Value Investing
In her paper, "Integrated Value--A New Private Equity Model for Driving Value Creation," adapted from an article published in Private Equity International, Diana Propper de Callejon, a General Partner of Expansion Capital Partners LLC and a member of Capital Institute’s Board of Directors, reports on the emerging opportunities for investing in sustainability that her venture capital firm is accessing as it identifies the “next wave” companies that are truly embedding sustainable practices into the core of their business models. (In an upcoming Profile we will talk with Propper de Callejon in depth about her personal journey from clean tech investor to integrated value investor.)
When and Why Foundations Should Blur the Line Between Profit-making and Charity
A recent New York Times article on program-related investing highlighted the $10 million equity stake the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took in Liquidia Technologies. Some in the foundation world are concerned that the investment blurred the line between profit-making and charity. We and our Braintrust advisor Stephen Viederman say foundations should blur those lines—as long as they deploy their endowment assets when they do so. We would argue that foundations should use all of the tools available to them to meet their mission and purpose: grants, program-related investments and, most powerfully, their endowment assets.
Patient Capital Collaborative
An Innovative Funder of Sustainable Companies Seeks to Establish its Own Sustainable Business Model
Some people talk about impact investment. Some people dabble with their own surplus funds. Some commit. Sky Lance and Tom Balderston have selflessly committed not just funds, but their full-time professional efforts to lead this important, catalytic initiative that leverages the deal flow and community of Investors' Circle in the impact investment space. I recall encouraging Sky to make the commitment at a conference in Sundance (after dropping and breaking a wine glass almost on Robert Redford's foot—no joke). I told him how important would be the contribution he could make by investing his experience and leadership in this idea. My hope is that all the institutions now growing excited about the potential of impact investment will consider supporting, and investing in, as I do, the Patient Capital Collaborative. Few initiatives have the potential to move the field forward professionally and collectively as does the PCC under Sky and Tom's leadership.—John Fullerton, founding PCC Limited Partner
Stephen Viederman: Investing As If The Future Mattered
The former president of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation talks about his crusade to create harmony between the "purpose" of a foundation and its investment practices
